RACHEL GETTING MARRIED [2008] - Dir Jonathan Demme, USA

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie Dewitt

Director: Jonathan Demme

Screenplay: Jenny Lumet

Running time: 1 hr 54 mins

Genre: Drama



CRITIQUE:


Anne Hathaway, presently, stars in not only one but two wedding movies, Rachel Getting Married and Bride Wars – only that you can chuck the latter in the bin, whilst revelling in the former. She plays the drug-addled, rehab-indicted Kym, the black sheep of this dysfunctional family drama. And what else could be the best moment for disasters to ensue but a wedding in the family? She excuses out of rehabilitation centre, arrives home, fucks the best man, insults the maid of honour, and causes havoc to the otherwise lovely, sumptuous ceremony. It’s a familiar premise, but this film doesn’t traverse conventional grounds. Extremely strong on characterisation, screenplay, and cinematography, it feels as though the wedding-movie genre is on raw ground. Thanks to Jonathan Demme, whose best films were arguably the thriller The Silence of the Lambs and the tearjerker Philadelphia, for portraying this crumbling family with cinema verité style, the now-famous documentary-feel filmmaking, hand-held, naturalistic camerawork giving this painful tale such rawness and urgency. 


The cleverness of its title Rachel Getting Married is that it is not about the titular bride, but rather the younger sister, the harbinger of doom, who is the heart and soul of this film. So compelling is Hathaway’s portrayal that beneath her scathing doe eyes and angry whirlwind of hair is a bruised human, torn about blaming herself for a family tragedy. This is an incredible role crafted by a young, capable actress. And she is supported by an excellent cast, most especially Rosemarie Dewitt as the self-assured older sister, Debra Winger as the apathetic mother, and a brilliant Bill Irwin as the father. There’s a tad bit of indulgence here; the wedding scenes go a little longer than desired, but it’s Hathaway through and through. She enters into the film hateful and appalling, but then she completely navigates her character into something painful, tortured and sympathetic, a lost soul trying to find self-redemption. That Oscar nomination is wonderfully deserved.


VERDICT:

Intimate and piercing family drama. The direction is superb, the screenplay sharp, and the emotions are raw, bitter and real. Hathaway owns Rachel Getting Married, and she is the film’s finest asset.



RATING: A-

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